Now the shops have started to re-open, are you thinking about improving your buying habits?  

If you’d like to, and it seems like everything is a minefield (if you've ever read about milk choices for example!), let's start with a few basics.  

Welcome intro to the basics of considerate shopping - lets learn how to buy better.  

• What is it made of? 
• Where did it come from? 
• How will it end its current use? 

What is it made of?

We’ve all seen enough to know plastic can be harmful when used in the wrong context – a long lasting material used for short lived products.  Of course, it's good to use recycled waste (especially if it's taken out of the sea) but it's time to re-consider natural materials like cotton and wool, which have many inherently good qualities, like moisture wicking and comfort. These come with their own issues of course, so try to check out the sources (for example, cotton can be very water demanding, causing environmental and humanitarian damage). Look out for labels such as BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) which aims to improve both the environmental impact and the lives of those who produce it.  

Where did it come from?

Buying local is a serious movement, and can be obvious for items such as food, but there are much wider opportunities to purchase from the UK. Buying Made in Britain means supporting local jobs and the economy (which supports us all), less transport mileage on the product, and increases the likelihood of fair employment with strong (if imperfect) UK employment rights.  Not everything can be bought locally – and it's important to support people everywhere. Some countries have the materials and skills to manufacture certain things, so that’s ok – but consider the real cost of bargain hunting – if you wouldn’t work in those conditions, why should anyone? Remember, if it's too cheap to be true, it is.  Look for products which use good employment practices, such as Fairtrade. 

How will it end its current use?

Recycling is easier than ever – the council provided bins, and places such as Terracycle take other materials like crisp packets.  Consider biodegradable materials (i.e. natural – cotton, wool, bamboo, etc) as well as materials which hold value to recycle, like metals. Ultimately, most things tome down to cost and if it costs more to recycle than resell – let's not kid ourselves! This is where cheap dyed polyester becomes a bit more problematic – there's a reason so many items are now made out of clear plastic bottles now – the dyes are difficult to separate out during the recycling process to make something that looks nice enough to buy.  

We can still make purchases that are useful or make us happy (or make someone else happy!) - let's buy better.  This is just a very brief introduction – if you’d like to hear more let us know! Or if you know someone who’d like to hear about this – share on socials